Chickpea stew with or without pasta

Comes winter, need heat. Yeah sure, home-soaked chickpeas are better, but you can’t beat the convenience of a couple of cans of chickpeas that you can use in a pinch.

I am not even sure what the equivalent of 2 cans of chickpeas is, when thinking of dry, but you probably can search that on duckduckgo.

I usually eat it without pasta, and just dip an unhealthy amount of fresh bread in it. Do as you see fit and don’t think of the calories.

Ingredients

• 2 cans of chickpeas
• 1 medium carrot
• 1 medium onion
• 1 medium potato
• about 3 inches of a celery stalk
• 1/2 tsp rosemary, better if fresh
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1/4 cup of white wine
• 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• Optional - a small tomato, or 1/4 cup of tomato sauce, or a tablespoon of concentrated tomato paste
• chili pepper
• black pepper
• salt

Protocol

1. Put the olive oil in a pot, heat up at medium
2. Chop your medium-sized vegetables small-ish (I do 1/3 inch cubes, but really, as small/big as you prefer).
3. Throw all the vegetables in the pot with the hot oil.
4. Let them go until the onions start to become translucent.
5. Add rosemary, a pinch of black pepper, chili pepper (I add a pinch, but go with your tastes). Let it go a few minutes.
6. Add the white wine and your tomato, in whichever form you decided to put it, and let it evaporate.
7. Add turmeric and drained chickpeas but do not throw the chickpea water away.
8. Let everything sautee for about 5 minutes.
9. Put the saved chickpea water and stir well, still at medium heat.
10. Put 1 tsp of salt.
11. Add 1 cup of water, stir well, let it get to boiling. I tend to like mine a bit more liquid, so I put a bit more water, about 2 cups total.
12. Stir well and adjust the salt content.
13. Let it cook for 5 more minutes.
14. Optional: remove 1/3 of the content of the pot, put it in a blender, blend and put back into the pot. This makes it creamier.
15. Now you need to decide if you want to put pasta in it or not. Small, short pasta works best. I love the rummo tubetti rigati. If you decide to do so, add another 1.5 cups of water and 220 gr of pasta. Bring back to boil and follow the instructions in the pasta bag for cooking times.
16. Let it rest for a few minutes in the plate because it retains an insane amount of temperature and it could be lethal.
17. Serve with croutons and some olive oil and fresh grated pepper on top.

The corner of the hungry student

• My grandpa taught me to put a tablespoon of pesto in soups (in the plate) and recommend that. He also tried to convince me to put a tablespoon of red wine in it (also in the plate) but I never believed him. If you try it let me know how it goes.
• This recipe is vegan, but if you really really want to use animal product you could put chopped pancetta while you sautee the vegetables.
• I tried to put cream cheese in it and although writing this could cost me losing the respect of many of my friends, it tastes great.
• When I was young and reckless I also tried mayo in it and I will let you try and decide what you think about that.